Books like Pericles of Athens — picked by fans

If, like me, when you read a history book, you want to learn something new both about a crucial period or personage in history and about how they reflect more generally on the human condition, then look no further than Jennifer T. Roberts’ magisterial study of the ancient Greek world between the Persian Wars and the aftermath of the Peloponnesian War (490-360 BCE).

It thrilled me and informed me alike from its first page to the last. At the start of her chosen timeframe, the Greek world was at risk of being overwhelmed by the Persian Empire. Had the Persians won… no Greek democracy, no Athenian theatre or philosophy, no Hippocratic medicine? Possibly. But did the Greeks make the most of their freedom from foreign conquest and control? Possibly not.

War between Greeks—of Greek state against Greek state, and between Greek citizens of the same state—was a plague, a metaphorical… show more.

You have heard of the ‘Thucydides trap’ but have little or no idea what it is, or why it might be interesting or even important? I can think of no other acceptable substitute for reading the work of the man himself.

Thucydides was born into an elite Athenian family about 460 BCE (when Pericles was about 35). His firsthand contemporary history of the Peloponnesian War (431-404) is an all-time classic, a possession forever, drawn on heavily by both Roberts and Azoulay—and by me.

I happen to be able to read him in the original Athenian Greek (which I started learning at age 11), but most of us will need a translation. For us anglophones, I can’t recommend any other as highly as Dr Waterfield’s. Which is not only the most recent but also accurate, clear, and perfectly suited in tone and register to the gravity of the original, as well… show more.

In case it hasn’t yet become rather obvious, I love the history of ancient Greece and especially the city of democratic Athens during the 5th century BCE and the lifetime of Pericles (c. 495-429).

To help explain why, I could just reel off a list of famous names—famous not only in their own time but also still in our own day: playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, philosopher Socrates, historian Thucydides, architects Callicrates and Ictinus, and, not least, master sculptor Pheidias, Athenians all.

The last three were united together with Pericles by their involvement in, indeed, the creation of, one of the greatest buildings of the entire Western tradition: the Parthenon, a temple of Athena the Virgin unique in its aesthetic adornment and refinement.

History, however, should not only celebrate but also educate and even warn, as does independent scholar David Stuttard in his totally gripping cultural history. Hubris has become… show more.

I love Cambridge (University Press) Companions—over 900 have been published so far, including many in my own field of ancient Greek history.

There is even a Cambridge Companion to the Age of Pericles. But that’s not the one I’ve chosen here, partly because Pericles has—rightly—had his fair share of attention and praise in my other choices, but mainly because the city of Athens, especially during Pericles’ lifetime, was one of the great cities of the world in any age.

The volume co-edited by Professors Neils and Rogers has many virtues and strengths, but what I love about it most is its vast breadth of coverage and its tight integration both between and within its 33 chapters of literature, history, and material culture.

It’s invidious to select, but space requires me to, so I’m going to recommend just six: those on the Acropolis, on animals in Athenian life, on… show more.

Full disclosure: Donald Kagan was my professor and mentor in graduate school.

Arguably the greatest modern historian of ancient Greece, Kagan addresses timeless questions of leadership, decision making, and the radically innovative political experiment of democratic government.

This slender biography of the great Athenian statesman and general Pericles provides guidance for anyone interested in the rationale for democracy and in methods for developing and preserving it.

I read this years ago; it's one of the reasons I began writing historical romance novels. It's the story of Aspasia, a woman in ancient Greece. She's educated in a selective school for courtesans, beautiful, groomed for pleasure, and bought by a Persian man who comes seeking a courtesan from this famous establishment. He takes Aspasia back to Persia. Eventually, she is freed and returns to Athens, where she meets Pericles. Inspired in part by his love of Aspasia, Pericles initiated the building of the famous Acropolis in ancient Greece. 

I was fortunate to visit Athens after reading Glory and the Lightning, and standing on the Acropolis, I found myself thinking of Pericles and Aspasia, real people who lived and loved over 2,000 years ago. (And yes, I may have gotten a lump in my throat and one or two tears threatened.)

Athens is where I lived as a student in the 1970s, and I’ve loved the place ever since! People who visit Greece often miss out on the capital or find the modern city ugly and noisy. But this book explains the magic effect that Athens has exercised on natives and visitors for at least two thousand years – all the way from the legendary wisdom of Solon the lawgiver to the gritty problems of a decade of enforced austerity (only recently overcome), and of a new multi-culturalism that comes with mass migration across Europe’s front line into Greece.

As an author of mystery-thrillers, including the Sherlock Holmes Pastiche, “Elementary, My Dear Spock” as well as a longtime fan of Agatha Christie, I was drawn to the appeal of an ancient Greek “detective”, Heracles Pontor investigating murders in Plato’s Athens. And, Somoza does not disappoint, inviting us to share Pontor’s journey down a rabbit hole that grows ever more intriguing and dangerous page by page. Somoza welcomes us with a beautifully translated murder mystery that soon envelopes us in a fascinating exploration of Plato, reality, and, as reflected in the original Spanish title, the Cave of Ideas. 

Strap on your toga, Watsonus, the game is afoot…or something like that.

Who needs Consulting Detective when you’ve got the literal inventor of logic on the case? The ancient Greek philosopher gets drawn into a messy case of murder defending the family of a former student.

I read this just after coming back from Athens—I wish I had it while I was there to compare the mentions in the text to real-life sites! 

I have collaborated with Bettany over many years—in her scholarly documentary filmmaking, including programmes on Socrates of Athens (469-399). Socrates never wrote or published in written form a word of his philosophy, yet through his immediate and succeeding disciples (above all Plato and Aristotle) has been hugely influential. But was he a democrat, as his fellow Athenians understood that term? In 399 a jury of 501 of his peers, chosen randomly by lot, delivered their resounding—negative—verdict, and condemned him to death by hemlock poison for being undemocratically irreligious and for teaching his pupils undemocratic values. Plato violently disagreed, and the debate over Socrates has continued ever since. Since it can be made to appear that he was convicted by an illiberal jury on grounds of his use of (democratic) freedom of speech, his condemnation has often been used as a stick to beat the ‘tyranny of… show more.